Siuslaw schools get mixed news

Siuslaw School Board members heard a bit of good news this last week.  Siuslaw Superintendent Jeff Davis says it appears that enrollment is up.

Jeff Davis — “It’s a good problem to have, but right now it’s problematic because our class sizes are large and we haven’t been able to address those situations until we really have some stable, reliable figures on our enrollment.”(click here to listen to quote)

He says “appears” because a lot can change in the first couple months as families move around.  But, he says, they’re up by about 90 students overall.

Jeff Davis — “We budgeted for about 1268 students, we thought there would be a gradual decline.  And it appears at this point right now that we could have as many as about 1360.(click here to listen to quote)

Much of the growth is in the high school, partly because of a large freshman class.

Jeff Davis — “It seems like that actually has grown significantly.  And the Elementary School, which graduated a large fifth grade into sixth grade this year.  We thought they would be down another ten or 15 students, they’ve made that up already.”(click here to listen to quote)

There is a possibility that the district may add to the teaching staff.  But, Davis adds, they want to make sure the increase is long-term before adding any additional personnel.